Golf tee



March 23, 1937. E; A, HEPHARD 2,074,519

GOLF TEE Filed Sept. '27, 19:55

wi www ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 23, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE GOLF TEE Edward A. Shephard, Oakland, Calif.

Application September 27, 1985, Serial No. 42,475

2 Claims.

This invention relates to tees used in golfing for positioning the ball prior to striking the latter with the club.

It is an object of the invention to provide a 5 combination of tees, each being particularly adapted to fulfill a different need, in one unit.

It is another object of the invention to provide, in a tee, means whereby the tee, after the completion of a stroke, may be retrieved without the necessity of the golfer stooping to pick it up.

Still another object of the invention is to provide means for moistening the edges of the suction cups so the latter may be made to grip a surface with the maximum tenacity.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, together with the foregoing, will be specifically. set forth in the specification hereunto annexed. It is to be understood however, that the invention is not to be limited to the particular form thereof shown and described as various embodiments thereof may be employed within the scope of the appended claims.

Referring to the drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the golf tee of my invention.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the golf tee.

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view of the tee. The plane of section, in which this view is taken,

is indicated by the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

In detail the golf tee comprises a central hollow body 4 composed of soft rubber and provided with a plurality of rectangularly related cups 5, 6, I and 8. Each cup is provided with a conical recess 9, the bottom of which approaches closely adjacent the inner wall of the body 4. Axially alined with the cup 5 is a stem l0 whose outer end is reduced in diameter and suitably bonded to a pointed metallic tip I I and in axial alinement with the cup 6, a similar, but shorter, stem I2 is provided, the latter also being fitted with a tip I3 which is considerably longer than the tip I I.

It will be obvious that any one of the cups is capable of engaging a golf ball and that a selected one of the pointed stems l0 and I2 may be made to engage the ground and to support its related cup, and the ball therein, in position to be struck by the club. After the shot has been made it is not necessary for the golfer to stoop to retrieve the tee, since this may be accomplished by pressing a flat face of the club, which isusually moisf-tened with dew from the grass, against the top 1 def one of the cups and pushing downwardly on the cab so as to expel the air from the cup whereupon the tee will be securely affixed to the club and placed in the ground at the above mentioned point by merely again pushing downwardly on the club with sufficient pressure to cause the tip to enter the soil. The contact between the tee and the club head may be then easily broken by twisting the club so as to cause distortion of the cup 10 and permit air leakage under the edge thereof.

It will be noted that the rubber portion of the stem I0 is considerably longer than that of the stem i2. This is to permit the tees associated with each of the stems to be put to different uses. In 5 lofting a drive, where it is necessary that the leading edge of the club head contact the lower periphery of the ball, it is desirous to provide as little obstruction to the free movement of the club head as possible, hence the flexible stem III which 20 will bend as soon as it is struck by the club and thereby not cause slicing or other inaccuracies in the shot which would be likely to occur if a rigid tee were used. The stem I! being more rigid is particularly adapted for low driving shots where 25 the club head is maintained a distance above the ground. There is, however, suflicient resiliency in the stem so that when the tee is struck by the club, as is most likely to occur, the tee will not be uprooted from the ground and flung thereby, mak- 3o ing possible its loss.

It is well known that the suction cups illustrated will not adhere well to a surface if the edges thereof are not moistened. As was mentioned above, there is usually sufficient dew on 35 the grass to provide for this moistening of the cups, however sometimes, particularly late in the day when the sun has evaporated the dew, there is no moisture present, and to insure proper operation of the cups, the only means remaining 40 to provide it is for the golfer to wet the tee with saliva. The undesirability of such action is obvious. I have provided means in the tee for storing a quantity of moisture and have also supplied means whereby this moisture may be 45 fed to any of the cups. As stated above, the body 4 of the tee is made hollow to provide a chamber l4 and the wall of the body at the bottom of each cup is pierced to provide a normally closed aperture l5. It will be seen that, prior to starting 50 the game, the golfer may load the tee with water by placing one of the cups over the mouth of a faucet and turning on the latter whereupon the pressure will open the aperture l5 sufllciently to allow the water to flow therethrough the air 55 within the chamber being, at the same time,

forced out through others 01 the apertures. 11,

when upon the course, the cups need moistening, the golfer need only squeeze the body 4 whereupon the water contained therein will be discharged through the apertures l5 and may be wiped by the finger on the cup edge.

In reiteration, the goli. tee of my invention is capable of being retrieved without the necessity to o! the golfer stooping to accomplish'this, contains the moisture necessary to insure proper functioning of the suction cups, is economical to manuiacture and is very eflicient in use.

I claim:

15 1. Agoli tee comprising a resilientchambered body having a normally closed duct therein and provided with a ground entitling stem and with a portion having a recess therein, and said duct the other end opening into the bottom of said recess. 

